The aims of the Seedbank are:to store seeds, to preserve their longevity and genetic diversity, to monitor germination potential and to revaluate deriving pants.
Seeds are living creatures and keeping them viable requires adjusting storage moisture and temperature appropriately. Seeds are amenable to storage for very long time as demonstrated by relief of seeds from archeological sites that nowadays are still able to germinate and are kept in other international Seedbanks.
In the Seedbank at IBBR seeds are stored for short-term (O° C and 35% of relative humidity) and long-term ( -20°C, in airproof tins).
Beside Graminaceae (wheats) and Leguminosae (legumes) storage within the Seedbank, the storage of seed of the horticultural specie artichoke is performed also on-farm. This storage strategy is carried out in contry fields where the plant is allowed to continue to evolve with its environment through natural selection.
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